In Frogland, you will often be asked if you want things
wrapped for presents, the item is then wrapped professionally and prettily, ready for giving. This happens whether or not it is ‘the time for giving’.

During December, outside the cash tills, many supermarkets have rows of tables complete with
wrapping servants, wrapping paper, ribbon etc. (This often done in exchange for a donation to a local charity.)

The rest of the year, there’s to be a do-it-yourself wrapping station. This used to dispznse free wrapping paper. It was very interesting to watch, if bored. There were the greedy bastards that sneaked up and took as much as the can get away with, furtively looking around while tightly rolling their spoils, and rapidly tearing it off if they think someone notices.

Even more fascinating is when one person grabs some, others notice and
then sidle over for a go; then there is a lull while the roll sits lonely waiting for the next assault wave.
Now the free paper has gone and instead there are wrapping paper dispensers - a euro for a metre or some such.

Humans are seriously weird.

Often I go into shops that are empty, within a few seconds many
other pour in and crowd the place out.

I've a good wheeze I'd sell to shop keepers if I had any entrepreneurial
ambitions. Get a realistic statue of me and place it where it can easily be seen from
outside! Their shops would be full ever after.

Another project by the money-bags of Dubai. An 80,000 tonne tower planned to turn a complete 360° every 7 days. The base of the tower is to move at 5mm per second, apparently using about 40kW provided via PV solar power.

“Singh said the company plans to build 23 more rotating towers in each of
the world's time zones with finance provided by investors linked to the
company.”
—
“A distinctive time line runs down the building that meets 12 o'clock
markings on the ground and the podium, allowing observers to use the
building as a fully functioning time piece.”

“The Giant Collector's Knife features a wide range of Wenger tools
including seven blades, three types of pliers, and seemingly countless
screwdrivers, saws, wrenches, and other tools. Additionally, some of the
more unique implements included are a bicycle chain rivet setter, signal
whistle, cigar-cutting scissors, laser pointer, tire-tread gauge, and
the requisite toothpick, tweezers, and key ring. This knife weighs two
pounds and eleven ounces, measures slightly under 9" wide, and features
Wenger's revolutionary EVO ergonomic handles for easier gripping and
control.”

Weight: 2 lbs, 11 ounces

Width: 8.75" wide

Lifetime warranty

“Wenger was not the first company to make Swiss Army knives. That was Victorinox, founded by the Swiss cutler Karl Elsener, who was appalled to discover that the Swiss army was supplied with knives by Germany. He began making knives for his country's armed forces , and from 1893 faced competition from another Swiss firm - the one that later became Wenger. In 1908, the Swiss government brokered a deal whereby the army would take half its knives from Victorinox and half from Wenger. Victorinox would be allowed to claim that they made "the original Swiss Army Knife", while Wenger would be allowed to call theirs "the genuine Swiss Army Knife".

“This gentlemanly disbursement of epithets will no doubt strike some as irritating: "Bloody Swiss. Always so bloody reasonable!" Such people will be further irritated to learn that when, in 2005, Wenger overextended itself with an ambitious product launch, Victorinox intervened in brotherly fashion, to acquire the company, preserve the brand and stop it falling into foreign hands.” [Quoted from guardian.co.uk]

Note that the Wenger giant knife does not have a hoofpick, that instrument is not part of their range. The Guardian article incorrectly claims that the tool for removing stones from horses’ hooves is mythical, but to obtain this almost legendary tool you have to buy a Victorinox knife.

“Some over-enthusiastic gamers have hurled their remote control through the TV screen in excitement and caused black eyes, cut fingers and bruised heads. One video posted on YouTube features a player showing his “Wii-scars” after being cut by shards of a glass lightshade smashed by a wayward Wii remote.

Moving a Queen Anne Victorian house across Tampas Bay, near to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Image credit: heraldtribune.com

“ "One hundred years ago in Manatee county, houses were moved like this all the time without the hydraulics and the big trucks," says Cathy Slusser, a historian with the Manatee County Clerk of Courts. "They moved houses back and forth across the river from Bradenton to Palmetto and back because they recycled material so I knew it was possible to do. But it was still thrilling to see it happen."

“The Victorian manor is being moved to make room for a new condo and retail development on Riverside Drive. New owners will remodel the manor in Ruskin and use it as a retreat for pastors and missionaries.”

“The move brought resolution to the question of what would happen to the home after Suncoast Developers stepped in to purchase the property and build office and retail space. The city made it clear - the development plan could only go forward if the house was preserved. Bob Breeden, president of Suncoast, took the condition seriously and started looking into options, but the local historical commission didn't have enough land to take the house. Coincidentally the Corbetts were searching for a threatened home to save and move to their Ruskin property.

“Breeden donated the home to them for $1 provided they took responsibility for moving the structure. Transplanting a house like the Lamb Manor can cost about $250,000, but the moving company requested the price for this move not be disclosed.” [Quoted from heraldtoday.com]

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, at 29,040 feet long (5.5 miles/approximately 8.85 km), is reportedly the longest cable-stayed concrete bridge in the world. However, only the central spans are cable-stayed - the longest span being 1200 feet (366 m), the rest is lengthy causeways supported on concrete piers. The name comes from the cable stays that are painted bright taxicab yellow.

how to annoy people who are stealing your bandwidth - the auroran sunset

Wireless networks are fundamentally insecure. You can encrypt the data you send around the network quite easily, but stopping someone else using your wireless network is almost impossible. Those that created the wireless network standards - 802.11 and WEP - screwed up multiple times. See here for the history.

“War drivers” - as those that drove round Silicon Valley breaking into wireless networks from their nondescript white vans were called - can be a serious pain. The Silicon Valley ones were after trade secrets. In the more mundane world of suburbia, many unscrupulous neighbours use next-door’s wireless network to gain free internet access. This is very similar to the ‘leeching’ problem described in our red-x document. Techies running a wireless network at home often come up with novel ways to deal with their thieving neighbours. Here is one of the most amusing example I’ve seen:

“My neighbours are stealing my wireless internet access. I could encrypt it or alternately I could have fun.”

That last linked page has fairly simple code for setting up your Linux machine [1] to turn images upside-down or blurry on the browsers of people who have hacked into your wireless network. The page also has screenshots showing the effects.

The fun is carried out using Linux’s highly versatile free command-line image manipulation tool, Mogrify. Like many command-line tools in Linux, once you understand Mogrify, it is incredibly powerful, quick and useful; but getting to the position of understanding is not the easiest of things. The linked manual for Mogrify is typical of Linux command-line tools - it does tell you everything about how to use the program, but in such a way that almost nobody will understand without significant amounts of trial-and-error and/or prior knowledge.

This sort of problem is a large part of why Linux has far fewer users than the Windows operating systems, despite Linux being much more powerful, much better written and supported, and orders of magnitude cheaper. There has already been significant improvement since I first tried running Linux boxes eight years ago; it is only a matter of time before these problems are fixed by the thousands of volunteer writers in the open-source community. No wonder Microsoft tries to falsely equate “open-source” with “software piracy” in the minds of the unwary.

note

1. The suggested networking wizardry is very easy to do in a Linux operating system, or another Unix-based operating system. With a little work, I’m fairly sure you could find a way with Mac OSX, which incorporates OpenBSD - another open-source Unix-like operating system. Something similar may be possible with the tools Microsoft provide with something like Window Server, but who would pay to find out? There are probably third-party Windows tools that will do the job for those with a more normal setup (Window 98, Windows ME, Windows XP Home, etc.) - how well they work and how much you’d have to pay is another matter. [Please email us if you have more definitive information about ways to do this in non-Unix/BSD-based operating systems.]

“Vietnamese catfish processor and exporter Agifish plans to turn catfish
fat into fuel to run diesel engines, a company official said on Monday.”
—
“The state-run Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper on Monday quoted Ho Xuan
Thien, the chief engineer of the project, as saying the firm planned to
build a 10,000-tonne-per-year factory in 2007 to mass produce the fuel for
domestic markets.”

“Before President Bush touched down in Pennsylvania Wednesday to promote
his nuclear energy policy, the environmental group Greenpeace was
mobilizing.

“This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the
country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying the
"threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.

“But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped while
searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.

“We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and all:
"In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst
nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND
ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE].”

“[...] one car dealership had a "rotisserie program" where
people wanting new cars would go to the dealer who would hire an arsonist,
collect the insurance and sell them a new car. Now,with rising gas prices,
big cars and long leases, torching is hot again. Just call your local arsonist,
leave $ 300 in the glove box and goodbye gas guzzling SUV, [...] ”

“ "It is news to a lot of people, even those who are specialists
in mental health services, that such a large proportion of the population
has these clinically significant anger attacks," said Ronald Kessler
of Harvard Medical School, lead author of the study in the Archives of General
Psychiatry.”
—
“ [...] more common in young men and people with low education and
income. The first episode occurs around age 13 in males and 19 in females.
They typically feel a sense of relief during outbursts, but are remorseful
afterward.”
—
“ [...] can be treated with anti-depressants such as Prozac and Zoloft.
In about 70 percent of cases, the drugs give patients a longer fuse before
they blow up. The drugs are "reasonably effective, but not a magic
bullet," Coccaro said.

“Patients also need behavioral therapy to control their anger. For
example, when they feel they are about to explode, patients should take
a "time out" by perhaps walking around the block, Coccaro said.
”

I.E.D. - Intermitent Explosive Disorder. Meanwhile in Iraq, roadside bombs are being called Improvised Explosive Devices. Yes, that’s right, I.E.D.s. Is this someone with a sense of humour winding up psychobabbledom, or are these psychobabblers actually trying to get this nonsense taken seriously? I see the ‘New Scientist’ has already bought into it, quoting ‘journal’ references: Archives of General Psychiatry (vol.63, p. 669-678, 2006) and The Psychiatric Association’s Diagnositic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

As scientists and concerned citizens, we applaud the recent trend towards legislation that requires the prominent placing of warnings on products that present hazards to the general public. Yet we must also offer the cautionary thought that such warnings, however well-intentioned, merely scratch the surface of what is really necessary in this important area. This is especially true in light of the findings of 20th century physics.

We are therefore proposing that, as responsible scientists, we join together in an intensive push for new laws that will mandate the conspicuous placement of suitably informative warnings on the packaging of every product offered for sale in the United States of America. Our Suggested list of required warnings appears below.

Caution: The Mass of This Product Contains the Energy Equivalent of 85 Million Tons of TNT per Net Ounce of Weight.

Handle with Extreme Care: This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles per Hour.

Public Notice as Required by Law: Any Use of This Product, in Any Manner Whatsoever, Will Increase the Amount of Disorder in the Universe. Although No Liability Is Implied Herein, the Consumer Is Warned That This Process Will Ultimately Lead to the Heat Death of the Universe.

Health Warning: Care Should Be Taken When Lifting This Product, Since Its Mass, and Thus Its Weight, Is Dependent on Its Velocity Relative to the User.

“Press the scan control for the time of day, where The Scope springs
into action, moving its x and y axis until it’s honed in on the
appropriate coordinates. The time is represented by the x-axis for hours
and the y-axis for minutes.